Today's Storm

So did you see the Today Show when PPP stormed them? I did not. But I did watch the behind the scenes they have on their blog. Got to go check it out.Guerilla Marketing it looks like TONS of fun! I think it would be fun to work with them they seem sooo energetic and fun loving. Have you checked out their site. It's great you get paid to post on your blog. Pay Per Post if you decide to sign up (which I bet you will) please tell them I sent you use my email (ullena at yahoo dot com) After watching the behind the scenes I want to watch the show. If anyone knows of where I could watch that please link me so I can watch it. TKS.

Late but still neat

so as I promised before here are some pix taken at the baseball game 2 weekends ago by The Bub. All except this first pix which was taken by a friend. So cute huh? We had a lot of fun. When we got there it was light out but since it was a night game it got dark fast. The bub snapped this pix of the Pittsburgh skyline from our seats.. Pretty no?
If you didn't notice but they mow the lawn in different patterns for the games this one had a baseball in the middle of it. Pretty interesting. I wonder how you'd do that.... hmm maybe I'll try it out on my lawn. LOL j/k
the bib also took this pix of beady while in the car on the way to the game. On the way home they were knocked out. It was late so I don't blame them.
well there were more pix but most of them were repeats so I opted not to share them.

so lets talk about babysitters. Where in the world are they? I'm not talking about day care I'm talking about a person (usually a teen) coming to your house to watch the kids while you go out on a date with your husband or something like that. We do have one gal who babysits for us occasionally. But sometimes she's out of town. (like this weekend) so I've been hunting for another babysitter not to replace but as a back up for us. This is not so easy to do when you don't know too many people who actually have kids that need babysat. I've looked online and a lot of places want you to pay to get info. And I found a yahoo group or two for sitters (they're free) but that brings me to who do I really want to watch my kids? Normally I ask a friend who they get to babysit. Really I think we need someone who's over 16 that can drive and get to our house on their own. (and maybe a little more responsible than those younger) But we'd also kinda like someone we know, or know the parents of so that we can kind gauge how they would treat our children and also what they would be "teaching" our kids. Lets face it our darling little ones are sponges they suck up everything they see. My 7 year old adores any older girl and uses them as a role model so I do want someone who dress modestly and believes the same as we do. So today I got the brainstorm to call the church and see if they had a list of the teens in the youth that babysit. I don't know why it took me so long to think of that. The secretary thought there were a few but she wasn't sure and said she would get the youth pastor to get me some info or give it to her so she would call me back. I'm waiting to hear back from the youth pastor who's gone today but will be back tomorrow. I'm hoping I can find another sitter who will be able to help me out this weekend.
also do we know what tomorrow is?? Yes it's Wednesday. But it's also See You at The Pole '06. I remember doing this when I was in high school. The bub's school is having a breakfast for the family and then prayer time. We're going. How about you?

Extra money?

So yeah I like to knit and crochet. And while lately I've been on a yarn diet I'd like to support my habit somehow.
So in the past I'd signed up for adsense. I still have the adds on my blog as you can see. Well I haven't see much profit from it really. (I think I've made like 2 bucks and you don't get paid till you hit $100) So while i still have hope in adsense i begin to wonder if it's really going to ever pay out. KWIM? Unless you have a really busy blog and get tons of hits it probably won't.
Through one of the blogs I read on bloglines, I found this site for me (and you) to make money. Of course I promptly signed up. So far it looks good. If you go there and decide to sign up please please when you do and they ask for who referred you there please put my email ullena at yahoo dot com. That will help me help you and the world will be a happier place. Well hopefully. But so far it's been easy and I have high hopes. And really what's it going to hurt? I'm just writing a few extra posts... KWIM?? it gets my creative juices flowing.
So i'm interested in what you think, what is your take on it?
go check it out!

Conversation with self.

Self: Hey you, YES you! What are you doing? Why aren't you working on your projects?
Me: Er uh I just wanted to check out my bloglines and look around....
Self: GET OF THE COMPUTER AND GET KNITTING!
Me: OK.

Get your Fash On

Did you ever play with dolls when you were younger? How about dress up? If you don't have a daughter it may look funny if you play with dolls now.. That is until you visit this site. Dress Up Games for girls (you know it's not just for girls though) This site is great it lets you create dolls from several different templates. The doll maker program is so simple to use and so fun too!
Go check it out but beware I spent several hours here trying to figure out which avatar would look the best. At first I wanted to be a mermaid, then a fairy then I thought maybe something normal. The possibilities are endless. It's really fun to play with these dolls. I finally ended up with this hot little number. It's really fun to make all different types of dolls for your use in forums, chats or whatever you want to use the avatars in. You can dress yourself up like a vampire to celebrate Halloween. There are some great dolls that they have for you to look at and they even have a doll chat. I didn't get to explore all the different fun options they had there so I encourage you to go check it out. I liked this one she reminds me of Cruella Dev il only in her prime LOL. There's even some winter fun dolls to create so you can get your blog ready for the colder months. You can even make yourself a celebrity I may have to go do that just to say I was famous. even if it's an avatar. LOL I'm a dork I know. The angels were really pretty. I thought about being one of those too. (not that I look as good as these fun dolls though *sigh*) But that's what playing dress up and dolls is all about your imagination! Go play have fun. And then LMK what you came up with. I'm thinking I may go back and become a mermaid soon.

Have you seen it? Socktoberfest '06! I signed up last year and I'm glad to do it again. Since then my sock yarn stash has grown and I need to knit it up into beautiful beautiful socks and stop hoarding it. There are tons and tons of people signed up so why haven't you?
Now I've been posting a lot lately but I've also been working on some things. So to show you I took pix. First off is a scarf. Made from some shlubby yarn I call it that b/c it's hard to explain. The close up will show you it's think in some parts and thin in others. This scarf is an adaptation from the one skein scarf in The Happy Hooker. I made it skinnier and shorter. I don't think that it will get kicked off the runway though...LOL The scarf only took me about 2 hours to make in all. Maybe less than that, it's a super easy project. I got the yarn from my COT stash exchange. I took it b/c I thought I could use it. The scarf is a gift for an exchange I'm part of and I don't know if she'll like it super duper long. I love super duper long scarves that I can wrap around and around and around and still have it hanging to my knees. I had a wonderful scarf like that but I lost it.. Well I have this habit of taking scarves off places and forgetting them. Which is what happened to the last one. I'm thinking about making myself another one. But you know me I'm always making something for someone else. Not that I mind. I enjoy that. But I'm also on a yarn diet big time due to budget restraints. So I'd have to use my stash and I don't have any yarn I'd want to make a scarf out of. I'm thinking bright colors my fav's lately are lime green,blue, purple, pink and brown. And not in that order. Anyways on to the rest of my projects.
I'm also crocheting an afghan for the same exchange the scarf was made for. It's a round ripple afghan. I love the way it is looking. I can't wait to see it when it's done. I hope the recipient likes it. It's really easy to make and brainless crochet so I've been working on that in the evenings when I've got "my" time alone with my shows. Tonight it was going to be Project Runway but it's not a new episode. I have to wait till next week. It's totally killing me! I love love love love LOVE that show! I should be sleeping but I quickly switched to CSI NY. And started composing this post for Ya'll. How ever will I finish a project if I'm online all the time.
but I find the time somewhere. I'm also actually working on my socks. Yes a project for me I've taken it off the back burner and started working on it again.. I'm not that far but it's coming along well. I took a pix of the patter close up. My camera stile never ceases to amaze me at the quality of pix it takes. This was taken tonight over my hand not very much lighting but hey it turned out! Anyways the colors are a little washed out but pretty still.
anyways I would tell you about my evening, but I don't want to make this post boring or annoying. Lets just say I 'm not going to run out of gas ever again!

Making Christmas!

Have you noticed at the stores that all the Halloween AND Christmas decorations are out? I was surprised to see the Christmas Decorations out so early. I absolutely love Christmas and Halloween with all the dressing up is fun too. One way I like to satisfy both of these holidays is by watching my most favorite move: Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas. It's not your typical Christmas move, if you haven't seen this move you MUST. You will fall in love with it almost immediately. The story is creative and lets your imagination run wild. Did you know it was the first full length stop-motion animation movie? (I'm sure you knew that already)
Well I found this website, collectibles Today. They sell fine collectibles and gifts. They have a wide selection of collectibles, from different themes to licenses like Disney, Thomas Kinkade, and Simpsons. But they just recently announced Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas Halloween Decorations Go ahead check it out. Now you can decorate for both Halloween and keep the fun up for Christmas. There's other decorations in that store. But I really enjoyed looking and drooling over this Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas Village The village is handcrafted and brings Jack SkellingtonÂ’s Halloween Town to life! Plus they have the train, which is also handcrafted.Ii can just see the village set up under aChristmass tree with this great electric train going round and round.
Yes it's a Nightmare before Christmas Train!It'sscollectiblee so if you have a collector in your family it's a must have! Check out the photos they're really great. Ii thinkIi may have to ask for these forChristmass. So what are you waiting for?

The bub

**special note** this is just for the last post. I'm so over it now. I was upset at the time b/c as a knitter I want the recipients (heck everyone) to appreciate, love and cherish the things I spend time on. So if they don't I get upset b/c I don't understand them. Also I hate wasting time sooo if it's not wanted I don't bother KWIM? And also My DH has been awesome he hasn't said anything about the redneck slippers or even touched them. (do you think he saw the last post?) and he's been wearing the hand knit ones instead. YES he gets props for that! Ok I'm done now on to the regular post*

Ok so this past weekend was The Bub's weekend. So I just wanted to share some photos of her for you to enjoy. Or myself to enjoy. Whichever.. It all started on Friday 7 years ago that is.. She was born. Thurs night I decorated the house so when she woke up it would look soo wonderful for her birthday. So we celebrated with our family in the AM by gifting her with a CD/radio/tape player for her room. And it's Spongebob.. He's the best.
she loved it. On Saturday was her school's fall festival we went for a little bit she got her face painted. She decided on a ice cream cone.
then we left there with some friend for a Pirates game. On the way there Madison and her friend decided to take some pix. I'd let her use the older digi camera for her fun.
once there I let her use the camera to take pix as she wanted. Later on in another post I'll show you photos that she took but this post is all about the birthday girl. At the game they took some great pix. We had tons of fun celebrating her birthday at the game. We got home late and of course the kiddos were wiped out and were asleep almost immediately on the way home.
on Sunday was the Bub's birthday party. NEVER again. Ok not really but next year it will be a sleepover. It was nice though to meet some of her friend's parents. Well really to connect the kid with the parents. This pix (with the denim box) it's filled with makeup. These next photos I'll let you figure out the captions for yourself. They're hilarious.
so she had a ton of fun and felt special for the weekend. I think it was good for her to have a weekend all about her. Anyways that's it for now. Tomorrow thru the eyes of a 7 year old...

THE NERVE!

Today, I just wanted to share with ya'll the horrible slippers that my DH has been wearing for a long time. Obviously you can see he wears them a lot by the pix. From before he bought them I've been telling him that I could Knit him some felted slippers that would keep his tootsies sooo warm he'd love them. Finally he asked me when I was going to make him some slippers. (I think it was after he wore a hole in the sole of the slippers.)
so immediately I began working on a pair of felted clogs in beautiful earthy and manly browns. They're really easy to knit and felt really nicely. It took me about a week to make them among other things I was doing. I used elann Peruvian highland wool for these slippers. I love that yarn it's really great priced and in a wide variety of colors. And it's soft by itself before felting after felting it's great too.
anyways I used up some skeins of wool that I had in my stash. (yes I'm trying to knit only from stash these days. It's going well!) I didn't have enough of one color so I made them all stripey. What do you think?
so today I come home from work and spy these horrible UGLY redneck (no offence to those of you who take pride in being redneck) slippers by the book case. They weren't even trying to hide. Immediately I go WHAT IS THIS??!!! Don't you like the slippers I made?!
My dh soon informed me that my FIL had bought them for him. Now you fellow knitters out there know exactly what I'm thinking, so go ahead and add a few choice words. So I'm really a little pissed off to say the least. Even though he insists that he likes the slippers I made part of me thinks my DH said something to his dad to make him buy a pair of slippers. b/c who really just goes out and buys a pair of slippers just outta the blue, ususally you buy them when someone needs them. Dh said he can wear the stupid redneck slippers outside, or in the basement. But nothing was stopping him from wearing the ones I made him outside or in the basement. I 'm half tempted to trash them with the black ones. I'm really upset. I've made a mental note to never ever ever knit or crochet something for my FIL. My dh is on thin ice as it is. so he'll be lucky if I make something else for him that's 2 hats, a pair of socks and now slippers that he HAD to have and doesn't use... hmm go figure.
So tell me what do think?

County Fair

So Monday we went to the fair and just today I got around to downloading the photos. I didn't have anything entered in the fair but I wanted to check out the scope of things anyways. When I got into the craft barn there wasn't much in the knitting category at all so no pix of that. I was scoping out to see what I should enter for next year. LOL sneaky I know! There was a lot of crochet and quilts. I took only like 2 pix b/c my Dh wanted to get some lunch. Anyways the flag one is really cool up close in the white there was a verse embroidered in there. Beautiful! And I'm related to it's creator she's my DH's aunt. Small world huh? So the purple and pink one is the one that won best overall. And I can see why it's a beautiful quilt. I absolutely LOVE the edging that this quilter did. Those are the only craft photos I took. But pretty huh?
So you can't go to the fair with out seeing the animals. At this one they even had a "petting" part. It was fun, I was excited to see the pigs. When I was a kiddo I always wanted a pot bellied pig as a pet. (never got one though)
here's some pix of the girls petting the animals. We were really lucky to go on such a nice day. Starting Tues it rained pretty much the whole week. Well yesterday it was nice and today too. So yeah lets not talk weather ok?
so some time ago Amy was doing a flash your pets thing and I JUST now got around to downloading the photo. She even made a button.
go ahead check it out!
Here's the pix...... His name is Simba. We rescued him from the Indiana County Humane Society.
we're just now getting all his little friends gone ear mites, fleas etc. He's so funny. Weird and yet very gentle with the girls. He's also gained some weight since we got him which is good b/c we could see his ribs when we first got him Now not so much. He's so spunky it's funny. We love to watch him and the girls love playing with him so he's a great match!

update on the Sock Wars. I had to bow out of the war. (insert crying face here) I was so excited to join and I thought b/c it's Sock wars that we'd be using sock yarn... But if you check out the latest post the pattern is going to call for DK weight. I tried that "wrap" thingy to see if I did actually have some DK weight yarn and no such luck. I'm totally bummed. But hey that's ok I was having a hard time deciding which of my sock yarn stash I would want to use. I'm still really bummed though. (crying face again) so So sad.. I would've rocked the war I know!

Note to Self:

Make sure you make a pot of coffee at home, coffee at work sucks!

SURPRISE!

So I've been waiting for my friend Kelly to get the baby gifts I made her she got them yesterday! If you go over to Kelly's blog you can see pix of her holding up the presents. Go a head and then leave her a comment about how cute she looks 9 months pregnant! She's due sept 21st or so.
After Kelly told me that she was having a girl I got to work. I made her a few things First thing I made her a baby sweater from the book Weekend Knitting. I know she admired the pattern, I did change it though b/c I wanted the stripes and the garter stitch to be the same as the body of the sweater so the arms I knitted differently. I used Bernat's new self striping baby yarn. I forget it's name but you'll find it at walmart or Michaels. Here's a pix of it hanging out to dry a week ago. If you'd look outside now it's raining. Then I made her this diaper bag. I figured the bigger the better with 4 kids she needs more room for stuff. LOL I made a gathered elastic pocket for water bottles, drink cups etc. And also at the top of the bag is a little pocket for Keys it's easier than hunting around for them in the bottom of the diaper bag. There's also another small pocket on the other side of the bag for whatever she wishes to put in there. I took a pix of inside the bag, you can see there is also a big pocket for separating things.

like clothes and diapers from what ever else you have in there. There's also near the top of the side a slim pocket for a cell phone (yes I tried to think of everything) I hope that she can use it. I used some iron on interfacing for stability and denim for the outside. It's pretty fabric inside but also manly enough for if her DH has to tote it around and after the kids are older if they wanna just use the bag for whatever. I also made a bonnet. I got the pattern from my sister's book that I forget it's name. I'm really bad with that type of thing. If you told me your name I'd probably forgot it also. Anyways here's a pix of the back of the bonnet which is why I wanted to make it in the first place. sooo elegant and beautiful. Don't even ask what yarn I used b/c yup I forgot. I also whipped up a baby blanket. Which is weird b/c I know that when you have a baby the most things you get is blankets so I try to stay away from that. But Before Kelly found out she was progress she and her DH had a garage sale SELLING everything baby. So I thought it would be safe to make her a blanket. It's just a granny square that I kept going bigger and bigger. And then changed the pattern to a cluster type thingy. It turned out rather cute. The perfect size for laying the baby on the floor for tummy time, or wrapping her up in it. Now call me crazy but for some reason I thought that wasn't enough and that the bonnet and the sweater needed something else so I whipped up a few booties for them. I was worried that Kelly and her DH would get the present and say now why didn't she just buy from the registry? So I wanted to make it all perfect...

Anyways you can see them on Kelly's blog since blogger won't let me upload any more pix. I've written too much combined with the pix I did get uploaded on here... well ya know.